Protective mats as overlays for carpeting or expensive wood floors have long been is use for the purpose of preventing damage to the carpeting or permanent scarring of the surface of a wood floor. With the widespread commercial use of carpeting, however, smooth surfaced chair mats made of a plastic material have suffered from the disadvantage that such mats tend to slip out of position from under a desk or table. Where such mats are large in dimension, frequent repositioning of the mats can be very troublesome and time consuming particularly where the rearrangement or moving of furniture is required.
In the prior art, in order to lessen this disadvantage, some manufacturers have constructed the mats with a pattern of cleats on one side thereof so that when the mats are placed face down on a carpeted surface, the mats will remain in position. Another attempted solution has involved the use of grooved devices which are attached along the side of the mats and which are provided on an underside with cleats for engaging carpet. However, these latter devices have not proved staisfactory since the smooth surfaced carpets slide out of the grooves rather easily after only a short period of time. In addition, it has been found that the conventional chair mat which is formed with integral cleats on one surface thereof has not been useful on all types of carpets since the degree of retaining power of the cleats varies as the depth and cut of the carpet pile varies. Thus, a standard cleat height and pattern for a chair mat, for example, will only be useful for a limited range of carpet types.
In many offices, attempts to retain a smooth surface chair mat in place can result in cracking of the plastic material of the mats such as when furniture is placed on top of a portion of the mat or when the mat is squeezed between movable pieces of furniture. Similarly, where anchoring pins have been inserted through the mats to hold them in place the underlying carpet eventually can be torn thus defeating the primary reason for utilizing the protective mat itself.
The present invention overcomes the foregoing difficulties by providing a web or strip of plastic material which on one face is provided with a plurality of projecting cleats and on the opposite surface with a pressure sensitive adhesive to enable the web segment or strip to be attached to the smooth undersurface of a mat. In addition, the present invention provides a unique package for the strips where a shield is placed over the adhesively coated surface and the strips are formed by placing perforations in a roll of plastic material to facilitate separation of individual web segments, as needed. A manufacturer can, therefore, construct a roll with web segments having differing cleat patterns and dimensions so that a single roll or a plurality of rolls can be sold to a customer who can then select the appropriate web segment to hold a chair mat on a particular type of carpet that has already been installed on a floor surface.
The foregoing and other advantages will become apparent as consideration is given to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: